For the first time, since
the fatal evening when she and Grace Roseberry had met in the
French cottage, Mercy Merrick looked back into the purgatory on
earth of her past life, and told her sad story simply and truly
in these words.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MAGDALEN'S APPRENTICESHIP.
"MR. JULIAN GRAY has asked me to tell him, and to tell you, Mr.
Holmcroft, how my troubles began. They began before my
recollection. They began with my birth.
"My mother (as I have heard her say) ruined her prospects, when
she was quite a young girl, by a marriage with one of her
father's servants--the groom who rode out with her. She suffered,
poor creature, the usual penalty of such conduct as hers. After a
short time she and her husband were separated--on the condition
of her sacrificing to the man whom she had married the whole of
the little fortune that she possessed in her right.
"Gaining her freedom, my mother had to gain her daily bread next.
Her family refused to take her back. She attached herself to a
company of strolling players.
"She was earning a bare living in this way, when my father
accidentally met with her. He was a man of high rank, proud of
his position, and well known in the society of that time for his
many accomplishments and his refined tastes.
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